2022 End of Year Newsletter
Happy New Year Nyayo Family!
2022 is over and it’s hard to believe we have been operating for 3 years now! This past year was filled with so many blessings and accomplishments. Per usual we wanted to wrap up the year with a look back at the finances, accomplishments, and our favorite yearly tradition, a word from the founder of Ibonde and Jinja Children’s Home, Silas. A few of the highlights included receiving our first company sponsored donation, conducting our first official “Nyayo Mission Trip”, and completing two donation campaigns that were started in 2021. But keep reading on for more detail about how neat this year and this journey has been thus far.
2022 Financial Overview
At the end of 2021, we decided to include all funding campaigns on our website and allow donors the ability to choose where to donate. Before this moment a donor could only give to one option, Basic Needs. This was partly because up until March 2021, we didn’t have solid plans for anything else. As we started getting more money though we knew it was time to start funding other things, namely starting the sustainability projects we had vision for.
However, there was fear in making this transition due to simply not knowing if and how basic needs would be covered if people were given the choice to fund other things. It took a step of faith to walk in this direction but we did it for a very simple reason. We want God’s will to be more and more present and ourselves to be less and less in all aspects of operation. So that meant us getting out of His way and removing ourselves from making decisions associated with where money should go. The following graphs and text show what God did over this past year.
Figure 1 Historical Revenue Comparison
Figure 1 shows how much money has been raised over the past three years of existence. Once more we experienced a year of growth in more than just one way. Please note that in 2022 about $20,000 of the $109,756 was raised specifically for the mission trip that occurred in October. So without including the mission trip costs, the amount raised in 2022 was $89,001.76.
Figure 2 gives a more detailed breakdown of how funds were raised by overarching category. Note each of these categories will be broken down further below. A couple things to highlight.
Our goal of $4950 for Basic Needs was met each month in 2022
Our founders continued to fully pay for the cost to operate Nyayo
Without including the mission trip, our “Extra” revenue totaled $23,617
Figure 2 Donor vs Founder Allocations
Earlier in this post, we had mentioned some reservation and fear about giving donors the ability to choose what to fund specifically in terms of what that would mean for collecting for basic needs. Figure 3 shows what happened over the course of the year in regard to basic needs revenue.
Figure 3 2022 Basic Needs Donor vs Founder Allocations
As you can see, the split between what donors have given versus what we’ve given has not been steady nor increasing. There is really no correlation other than it being a bit chaotic and unpredictable. We have grown used to (and our happy to) giving at least $1000 towards basic needs each month. But with this unpredictable nature we also didn’t expect donors to completely fund basic needs. This has only ever really happened once before, and because of its rareity we really don’t take this for granted. We’re truly thankful for any amount given but it is encouraging to see those full blue bars toward the end of this year. In a month like February, it was a bit challenging to experience this lull, especially when you see $1,345 given to the purchase mosquito nets and piglets when we were far from meeting basic needs. But without these donations, we wouldn’t have completed either of these campaigns later in 2022. There’s always a plan and our relationships with God are stronger because of this experience.
When we made this transition to allow donors to decide where to allocate funds, we didn’t completely get out of the way. Our action turned from direction to simply praying. We prayed, and still do, that God would guide those hearts that gave to whatever He wanted. Figure 4 is how those prayers manifested themselves into specific items.
Figure 4 2022 Allocation of All Funds by Item
Of note:
We started to pay for the services of a Certified Public Accountant to help us with preparing our tax return due to our growth. Carol Crews has been a God send!
Administration costs are the money that Hunter and Michael give from their pockets for Gordon to handle miscellaneous things that come up in the operation of Nyayo in Uganda. We send $250 a month.
We completed the piggery project this year, purchasing the last of 40 piglets in December. If you recall, we started this project in June 2021.
We also completed the mosquito net project in December, having purchased 200 hundred since January 2022.
We were able to buy 275 new uniforms for all the kids and some of the caregivers. We tye dyed them with the kids when we took our trip to Uganda in October.
We started 4 new projects in November and December: Tourism (helping start a tourism business), restarting construction on the school at Ibonde (we hope to use some of this space for the vocational school), purchasing drinks and cakes for quarterly birthdays and holidays and finally purchasing Bibles. The Bible is the reason behind the mission to serve these kids so we wanted to share that which has been so impactful and transformational to the lives involved in the work as well as supply those who were obviously eager for the word when we were there in October.
It’s funny to look back and see the fear that was present in wanting to limit where people could donate. And yet people gave more in 2022 than every before. More work was taken on and more work was completed in 2022 than every before. The journey has not been steady, predictable, or comfortable but we are happy to walk with our Lord wherever he leads us.
A special thanks to those who gave this year:
Cindy Dorsainvil, Lydia Foutch, David Phillips, Ryan and Sydney McKenna, Arman and Leslie Jahandafard, Curran Hyde, Angi Keel, Josh Cornett, Earl and Stacey Sutton, Nathan and Cayce McAlister, Brandon and Mahalie Todd, Jacob and Amanda Patterson, Joyce McConnell, Alex and Michelle Moore, Taylor Handley, Taylor Sutton, Sebastian and Eun Joo Tarchala, Michael and Sarah Mantia , Heather Bush, Rhawny Leach, Abraham Meganathan, Sierra and Sam Smith, Armin and Hannah Jahandarfard, Angelia Hanshaw, Anna Barrera, Jarrod McNatt, Curran Hyde, Briana Hanlon, Albert Meza, Cynthia and Anthony McNatt, Christan Yarbrough, Lauren Russo, Pat and Alex Burgess, Joshua Hvidding, Ashley Kennemer, Shellie Mitchell, Jordan Anderson, Adarsh Ramakrishnan, Bill and Tracey Walkup, KODA Technologies, Kevin Krueger and Shellie Mitchell.
We value you sharing in this work with us!
Message from Silas
Betty and Silas started helping kids out in their community back in 2003 and have been able to provide just enough for these children over the years by keeping their faith in God. The children’s homes have continuously improved over the years and now that Nyayo has been helping facilitate more funds to the homes of Ibonde and Jinja, the impact can be seen and felt. Below is a letter from Silas on his gratitude and appreciation for the donors and leaders of Nyayo and how much of an impact we’re making in the children’s lives!
“Dear Nyayo,
Merry Christmas and happy new year our beloved Nyayo brothers and sisters in the United States. It’s our great pleasure and opportunity to write to you this letter of gratitude and appreciation for making 2022 a remarkable and wonderful year. First of all, if you are reading this newsletter, we thank God for protecting you this far.
2022 has been our year of thanksgiving for all the marvelous work God is doing here in Uganda through Nyayo. Our children’s future at both homes looks brighter than it has ever been. Through-out this year no child missed a meal or went lacking. Indeed this has been our prayer for years.
We are grateful for the projects that were accomplished this year. Our pig and cow projects have added momentum to our stability. Now instead of buying or going without milk, the kids and the caregivers are able to get that from the farm every day.
This past October we were also blessed to host our Nyayo team from the USA and they really left a big impact on us and the children. Many lessons were taught, many laughs were shared, many games were played, and many worship songs were sang to lift up the most high name, the name of Jesus.
We were happy to have the team visit one of our local churches in the village where they had communion for the first time as a church. The team also came from the USA with some gifts for pastors that included clothes, shoes and bibles. We are happy to inform you that those gifts have been well received by the pastors and indeed they have been encouraged by your generosity.
We are glad that not only is Nyayo providing basic needs here in Uganda but also helping us to make the name of Jesus more famous so we can continue to fulfill the great commission.
Now that we are entering 2023, we would like to encourage you to keep steadfast in the faith, to know that there is nothing impossible with God.
In 2023, we are praying for abundant miracles for Nyayo children, caregivers, donors and all our Nyayo leaders.
We have more projects lined up to improve the life our children and we thank you that your support does not go unnoticed.
I have much to share with you but I would like to conclude with a request to keep our leaders, my sons, Mike, Hunter and Gordon in your prayers to stand firm and keep receiving more knowledge, wisdom and insight for the vision God had put on their hearts for Nyayo. We love you and greetings from Uganda”.
Pastor Silas Atugonza
Major Achievements
February
More Transparency & Empowerment to Donors
We announced a new feature on the donation page of the Nyayo website this past February. Since deciding to give donors the option to pick from multiple fundraisers in which to give, we really wanted a way for donors to see statuses of each campaign to help inform their decisions. We received some help from a friend, Cody Henderson, who was nice enough to take time to create code that we embedded on our donation page to automatically show updates on funding goals live. This allowed us to become more transparent to our donors as they could now easily see how much had already been raised for any active campaign and how much more was needed in order to reach that goal.
When paired with adding all active campaigns to the donation site, this feature not only allows us to be more transparent donors but also made our operation more efficient. Below are some examples of what this looked like on the “Donate” page of our website.
First Announcement of Mission Trip to Uganda
Mike and Hunter had been thinking of doing another trip back to Uganda and decided to reach out to friends and family to see if they were interested in joining! The idea of Nyayo was first planted after a similar trip allowed us to see the needs first hand back in 2017. We decided it was time to take another group to see the people who changed our lives.
April
Easter Celebration
In April, we raised money to be able to prepare amazing meals with large portions as well as soda pop treats for our kids as they celebrated the Easter holiday! We wanted to be more intentional and consistent with trying to provide special treats on special occasions. This and some of the previous holiday celebrations were some of the inspiration behind one of our new campaigns we now do called Celebrations (more below).
$250 provided these special meals from Good Friday to Easter Monday and consisted of rice, millet bread, beef, soup and soda. Although we may not think much about soda here in the states, it’s actually considered to be a very special treat for kids in Uganda. They don’t have the privilege to drink them very often so it was a delightful gift that brought a lot of joy to the children on this special holiday!
June
First Company Sponsored Funding - KODA Technologies
In June, we had an amazing opportunity to apply for a chance to receive funds from KODA Technologies, a company that one of our donors works for. This company has a program called KODA Cares that distributes funds to employee’s choice of nonprofits/charities. We put together an application package describing Nyayo and our donor presented this to his company. There were 6 other charities that were nominated in addition to Nyayo and we received $6,600 to go toward the cattle project! The same donor also contributed another $400 which allowed us to expend $7,000 on 5 new heifers back in July. This was an absolute blessing and we can’t give enough thanks to KODA and everyone involved for making it possible! It was also a good opportunity for us to learn and allowed us to put together more presentation material to explain what we do. If anyone works for or knows of a company with a similar charitable program, we would be happy to share the presentation and support you in putting together any other material necessary.
Mission Trip Officially Solidified
Also in June, we officially booked our mission trip to visit the kids at Ibonde and Jinja Children’s Homes in October! Michael and Hunter were preparing to lead 9 other people to meet up with Gordon and his family to put on a weeklong Vacation Bible School / Camp for the kids. Almost all of those that planned on going either were regular donors and/or join us in our weekly zoom bible studies. At this time, we continued to constantly pray for guidance over the planning and preparation of this trip to ensure we made it the best trip possible for both the mission trip team and the kids.
October
Mission Trip Conducted 22 Oct – 1 Nov
As the trip approached, we had some pre-trip curveballs that we had to overcome, such as an Ebola breakout that started in late-September and flight cancellations just days prior to taking off to name a few. Our team remained bold and united in the midst of turmoil and God kept opening up new doors, regardless of the obstacles we ran into. The 8 of us left the U.S. on October 22nd and arrived in Entebbe, Uganda on the night of the 23rd, and had a lot of fun things planned for our time there with the kids and caregivers!
We would start and end our days worshiping with the kids, which was super awesome and also helped us stay focus on God and His mission for us there. The kids loved to sing and dance and even surprised us with multiple choreographed dance performances! On our trip, we helped the caregivers with various tasks such as washing dishes, hanging mosquito nets, cooking, sweeping, mopping, and laundry. These tasks helped us gain a different perspective and appreciation for the hard work our caregivers put in each day to keep the children’s home running. In the evenings we spent our time teaching the kids bible lessons and songs, followed with fun games and many laughs! We danced, played sports like soccer, volleyball and kickball and even learned local games from the kids that were an absolute blast!
The team got to see a lot of the beauty of Western Uganda from the window of our bus ride to Ibonde. Not only did we get to experience the culture and daily lives of the Ugandan people, we also got to experience local wildlife on the side of the roads, as well as venturing on a safari through Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Surprise birthday parties, treats, games, dancing and tie-dying shirts made up our last few days with the kids and wrapped up our trip. God kept us safe on our trip and on our travels which we are so grateful for. We also truly appreciate all the hard work that was put into this trip from our team of volunteers as well as the hospitality of everyone from the children’s home and how welcomed they made us feel. We hope everyone had an amazing experience!
Below are a few pictures for you to see our mission trip team and the work they accomplished!
November
New Campaign Started for School Building Construction
One of our school buildings at Covenant Primary School is still in the process of being built. The first-floor of the building is complete, which has 4 classrooms that are currently being used throughout the school year. The second-floor construction had been previously halted since January 2020 due to our focus of funds on primarily basic needs for the kids. In November though, we decided to restart phase 2 of the school construction and create a funding campaign for it. We applied $150 from a donor who’s had a heart for this project for a while and applied $150 of our own funds to restart this project! We are not sure yet what this will be used for but have tossed around a lot of ideas to include a room for a library as well as classrooms for vocational subjects.
First Time Basic Needs was Fully Funded by External Donations
November was the first time in 35 months of operating that our founders gave nothing to basic needs because they were completely covered by external donors. Come to find out, we would also have our basic needs covered by only donors for December, which makes that two consecutive months!
Technically in June 2021 we received enough funding to cover basic needs for that month completely by external donors. But at that time we divided the amount up and spread it out over the following months to help us meet the needs for the rest of the year and so still contributed our own money in June 2021. So November and December were truly unique in that our founders truly contributed nothing to basic needs.
December
KODA Technologies Donates $3,000 to the Cattle Herd Project
This was our second time applying for the KODA Cares Nomination and both times we have now received very generous donations! We thank God for affording us these opportunities to raise money for the kids of Ibonde and Jinja. This donation was extremely helpful in continuing towards our cattle sustainability project goal of 29 heifers and we’re excited to see our herd grow.
Piggery & Mosquito Net Goal Reached
Back in June of 2021, we started our piggery project with just 4 piglets and a brand-new shelter. After a year and a half of raising money for this project, we completed our goal of purchasing and housing 40 piglets in December! Although we haven’t offset any basic needs with this project yet, our pigs continue to grow and hopefully soon we will be able to share the project’s impact in the kids’ daily lives.
At the start of this year, we began raising money to replace 200 mosquito nets for the kid’s beds and we were able to complete that goal this past December as well! Mosquito nets are always needing to be replaced after constant wear and tear, so this will most likely reoccur at some frequency but we are excited to see it closed for now.
New Campaign Started to Buy Bibles
Both orphanages were started by Silas and Betty from their convictions in what they read and believed in the Bible. The same is true for the creation of Nyayo. One thing that Gordon asked that we bring on our mission trip were Bibles and we would like to continue funding this now that we’re home. English Bibles cost $15 each and Rutooro (their local language) Bibles cost $30 each. We will be starting with the kids and caregivers at the orphanages but would like to be able to purchase bibles for local teens and others in the surrounding villages too as we can.
New Donation Page Layout
As we get ready for 2023, we wanted to refresh our donation page to be able to accommodate more campaigns that we are planning for the new year. We redesigned the page so that 2 campaigns can be seen simultaneously, limiting the amount of scrolling required. This is only applies to those viewing our website from their computer. Viewing the donation page from a mobile device will still only show campaigns one at a time. The design also makes it much easier and less time consuming for us to update as we add and update this page. We are looking into possibly color coding the campaign boxes by category to further help.
The new layout of the donation page when viewed via a laptop (mobile devices are stacked).
Things We Are Praying About
We continue to ask for your prayers for God’s continued guidance as we follow along wherever the Spirit leads. Prayer is clearly being answered in ways we aren’t even asking for help in. If you’d like to pray along with us, these are things Michael, Gordon, and Hunter are currently praying for:
Blessings for the children and caregivers of Ibonde and Jinja Children’s Home
Guidance for Michael, Gordon, and Hunter as they continue to lead Nyayo
Guidance for others who are helping
Guidance on upcoming projects for the children’s homes
And finally just a thanks for all that has happened in 2022 and these past 3 years
Bible Study
Weekly Zoom Studies
Please reach out if you’re interested in joining our bible studies via zoom every Monday at 7pm CT! We welcome anyone who wants to learn more about Jesus, even if you just wish to keep your camera off and only listen in on our discussions! We like to keep it light and informal as we have casual conversations about the various chapters we read throughout the Bible! We are currently reading 1 Samuel.
Peace and blessings,
Michael, Gordon, and Hunter
